Rian Dundon, photo editor at Timeline, has pieced together 20 years of Texas Death-Row Portraits, a photo-gallery depicting some of the men executed by the state of Texas since the early eighties.
Richard Wayne Jones was convicted and sentenced to death for the February 1986 kidnapping and murder of Tammy Livingston in Hurst, Texas. They are a key tool with which authorities–and increasingly prisoners–tweak their narratives for public consumption. Being a engaged citizen means to approach this new paradigm armed with information, skepticism and visual literacy. Visuals are one of the key ways outside-citizens learn about prisons. And so, I guess, I am more interested in what it means for us as citizens.Īre we aware that more and more of the visual representations of US prisons and jails are shifting toward raw, unpolished feeds captured by wall-mounted cameras, body cams and illicit phone-cameras?Īs we are exposed to this new type of imagery do we process it with the narrative its given to us through news and Internet alongside ads and comment boards? Do we take empathetic leaps to imagine all experiences within the scenes of abuse played out on our screens? Do we appreciate that events in one prison, at any moment, may be repeating in hundreds of the other 6,000+ locked facilities in the U.S.? I expect it’ll function in the courts and for journalism as it always has to construct, confirm and dispute narrative. I’ve not put into words fully, yet, what the emergence of this distinctly new type of visual evidence means. Often, if a video comes to our attention it is due to the violence or injustice it includes.Įven within images and videos in which abuse is not explicit, our eyes are being trained on the aesthetics and, crucially, the psychological and existential threat of incarceration. Prisons and jails give rise to horrific conditions and in some ways all the images and videos in what I’m referring to as a new visual paradigm are horrifying too. Characterised by awkward angles, low resolution, ambient cacophony and muted tones, prisoners’ illegal vids resemble surveillance footage. Whether the video and images are amateur, operational or prisoner-made they tend to share a grain and a noise.
Tdcj inmate photos professional#
NEW VISUAL PARADIGMīetween whistle-blowers, FOIA requests, court materials, leaked CCTV and contraband cellphone vids there is a wealth of visual material emerging from the Prison Industrial Complex that describes the system very differently to the descriptions of professional photographers.
Tdcj inmate photos full#
Get the full context of the video and the TDCJ response in the ABC August 2015 report. There is a longer video depicting the before and after and giving more context to the altercation between prisoners that gave rise to this nervy cop’s point-blank violence. Worth noting is that the video on ABC includes only the incident and the moments leading immediately up to it. They’re accommodating the continued circulation of this video in order to preclude the future circulation of others. They’re bringing the boot down especially to quash internal leaks of misconduct and injustice. One wonders then what the prosecution of Brass does? It certainly brings the video back to public attention.Īssuming that the TDCJ are willing to tolerate the scrutiny afresh, one must conclude that they really want a prosecution for the purposes of intimidating whistle-blowers and putting staff back under the order of command. Usually, the authorities want stuff like this to go away as quietly and as quickly as possible for it to get out and off the news. Not wanting to cause itself problems, I presume, the TDCJ is hoping the matter will be forgotten and the retraining of staff it says it has done since will prevent a repeat event. TDCJ has already admitted the improper use of the tear gas gun, but it has not sanctioned the trigger happy guard, let alone terminate his employment. Indicted by a grand jury in December, Brass is due to appear in court February for “misuse of official information.” The law states he could face between 2 and 10 years if found guilty. The video appeared in an ABC report in August 2015. If you’re in any doubt about either the power of images or the vindictiveness of prison authorities then consider this story.Įlderick Brass, a former Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) officer leaked a video in May 2015 that showed a Lychner State Jail guard firing a tear gas canister into the chest of a prisoner. Still from video of a TDCJ officer firing a tear gas canister at a group of prisoners from just several metres.
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